The Difference between Rich and Poor in Ancient Rome

In Ancient Rome has rich and poor people although there are more poor than rich. There was a huge difference between the rich and the poor. But with the poor people in Rome more than half of the poor’s were also jobless. Mostly all of the jobless Romans only survived because of the food the government gave them. But mostly everyone had a slave rich or poor.

The rich Romans lived a life of luxury. They would host giant parties with lots of food. Also most of the food that the government gave out to the poor’s came from rich Romans homes. The richer Romans were know for there feast they would often serve meat such as partridge or wild boar. On special occasions they would serve flamingo or ostrich. For a special dessert they would have dormouse cooked in honey. Normally during the feast they would have some type of entertainment.

The poor’s would live in small apartment like houses were they had to carry everything over the stairs, although sometimes they would just throw trash out the windows. Also since there houses were made of wood they would catch on fire. In A.D. 64 there was a huge fire that destroyed most of the city.

The Coliseum was a big thing in Rome. Rich and poor would go to see the fights between humans vs. humans, animals vs. animals, humans vs. animals and gladiators vs. gladiators. The fights were normally between slaves held captive and forced to fight but some fighters were just town’s men and some women who wanted the fame. Although they didn’t fight until death the gladiators did. With the gladiator fights if one of the gladiators was injured the emperor could put up his thumb and he would be saved but if he put his thumb down it meant death. The strange thing was that sometimes they would even have clowns performing in the